The Solitude Of Beastman
by tslove
Summary: On ancient Preternia, the planet Eternia in the very ancient past, before even the great dragons rise, a strange device arrives from the stars, and transforms one of the primitive starving beast into a monster. This continues my tales and take on the origins of the friends and foes of The He-man.


**The Solitude Of Beast Man**

Long ago, when Eternia was still young, there lived a herd of feral primates near a water hole in the wilds that would one day be known as the Gore Jungles. These primates were dim witted and vicious, and perpetual starvation forced them to work together to snare prey when they could. Because everything around them was so much smarter, sadly for them this was not very often, and usually they were forced to scavenge whatever scraps of meat and flesh the wer-cats and direwolves left behind from a kill, also not very much. Their fur had been reduced to a dull brownish grey and had started to thin and fall out, their nails were rotted and malformed, and even though evolution clearly implicated that one day they should be bi-pedal, they walked on all fours with their eyes cast to the ground, limiting their vision and making them easy prey for predators, which would pick them as a last resort. Their meat was tough , wormy and stringy. Without some form of divine intervention, it looked as if the primates would not last another two generations.

Divine intervention _did_ come, or at least some kind of intervention, as it always does to doomed species that actually survive their first thousand or so years of life. As the primates were huddled inside a cave next to their waterhole one night, sleeping together for warmth and protection, and fearfully gazing outside waiting for the wolves to come, a glowing red rock fell from the sky. Red and green firetrails streaked behind it as it landed in the primates water hole, and there was a great explosion that shook the earth upon impact. Four of the primates made it out of the cave before impact, the braver, more curious ones, and those traits would later aid in the evolutionary survival of the species, since the earthquake that resulted upon the rocks impact destroyed the cave the rest of the herd was housed in, killing all but six of them and injuring those six. The primates outside were knocked to the ground from the concussion and a great cloud of dust rose from the impact. They blacked out and lay like the dead for two full days.

Their unconsciousness would have been the end of them, except the direwolves and wer-cats would not approach the area of impact from the rock. Instinctual warnings of danger kept them away, and though their stomachs cried out for the easily obtained meals that lay on the ground, their heads told them that great danger lay in that smoking rock, so they avoided it, and the primates lay unconscious, blissfully unaware of the circling predators.

On the morning of the third day one by one the primates awoke. First they went to their cave, which had been reduced to rubble, and then they went to drink water from their hole, but backed away from it when they saw that it was bubbling, the rock from the sky had turned it foul. Their small brains were not complex enough to register what had happened, and neither were they intrepid enough to leave their water hole. They lay stupidly in the dirt, not realizing it but preparing to die of thirst.

On the second day since their awakening, one of the primates rose and crawled towards the water hole. In some dim area of its brain it knew that it was dying of thirst, it realized what that meant, and it understood that to drink was the only way to save itself. It knew that its water was poisoned but it did not know of any other water to drink, as far as it knew the world ended beyond their cave and water hole. It drug itself to the bubbling, noxious water, lowered its head and began to drink...

Suddenly tentacles rose from the depths of the pool. The tentacles were lined with receptors, and thaumaturgenic charges arced up and down these receptors. The tentacles belonged to a creature that was a mix of strange thaumaturgy and cybernetics, although such concepts were foreign to the simple primates brain. All it knew was danger, and it tried to leave the water hole but was too slow, the tentacles wrapped around his legs and neck and pulled him under.

He did not resurface for nearly twenty four hours, and when he did, the creature that emerged from the waters was not the same one that had been pulled under. Instead of the starved creature that walked or more apt crawled on all fours, a magnificent bi-pedal creature with burning orange fur and rippling muscle came forth. The creatures face was lined with white fur, and long fangs protruded from his gums. Upon setting foot on dry land, he threw back his head and roared the likes of which had never been heard in that world. The roar echoed through the valleys and awoke the other primates, who trembled in fear from this newcomer, and tried in vain to crawl back to their destroyed cave.

The monster did not give them the chance. It caught up and gathered them all in it's massive arms, lifting up the bundle of them as if they were dried sticks. Only when it had all of them did it move towards the water hole, and then threw them in, where the tentacles appeared once again and pulled them under. Then it moved towards the collapsed cave and in incredible displays of strength began lifting the boulders from the cave entrance and clearing the rubble. Before nightfall it had the cave cleared once again, and had discovered three still living primates inside, badly wounded and close to death, but breathing still. Carrying them to the water, it threw them in as well, then sat down to rest and wait.

The direwolves came first. Long they had ruled this plain, and to them it fell to eliminate any threats, and this newcomer was unlike any they had ever seen. They attacked as a pack, confident in their victory. The great alpha female attacked first, already relishing the hot blood that would soon be flowing down her windpipe.

As it happened, the blood that filled her windpipe was her own. In mid leap she realized that her intended prey had instead used its long viscous claws to sever her windpipe, and that she had only a few moments of life left, before she died though, she _felt a strange voice inside her head_ issuing a authoritative command: "Your leader is dead" the voice said , "Stand down."

The alpha looked around her before her eyes darkened and her life left her to see incredibly that her pack was obeying the command, all twelve of her great killer direwolves lay simpering like pups at the monsters feet. It had taken control of them, gotten inside their heads somehow. The alpha knew utter defeat then, knowing her pack was lost, and died on that bloody plane, unable to comprehend the blood this new monster would cause all the generations of her pack to spill. The monster raised his hand then, and in a final gesture of dominance ordered the pack to eat her, and they tore into her flesh.

The monster then ordered the direwolf pack to guard the area around the waterhole and wait. When the wer-cats came, great three hundred pound orange cats with patches of green in their fur, they prowled in slow circles, keeping a great distance from the wolves. They were more cautious and intelligent, and the monster knew that they could be of great use to him in the future. Being normally solitary creatures, there were only five of them come together to face this threat, and they were without a clear leader, therefore it was easy for the monster to use his new telepathy to subdue them. All was as the tentacle creature had promised that it would be, he was the Master of beast and had been given dominion over the predators of the wild. The cats surrendered to him and joined him without struggle.

The orange furred monster took a moment to reflect, thoughts were a new luxury for him, since before going beneath the waters he had been unaware of all save the need to eat and drink, and stay warm. Now, so many thoughts were in his head! How to best serve his Master! How to bring about what he knew must be done? When he had first been pulled beneath the waters he had known fear, and for the first time he truly feared for his life, knowing what it was then to die, and he had wished very much to live. Then the tentacles had wrapped fully around him, and the thaumaturgenic energies within them had arced through his fur into his skin, first immobilizing him, then initiating telepathic contact. He went limp as the great tentacle creature began pouring information into him, more than his small primitive primate brain could process, and it did not take long for him to began convulsing. The creature was uncaring however, and the information continued to pour in as the captive primate hemorrhaged internally and blood poured from his nose and nostrils into the water. The tentacle creature had shot a tentacle directly through the primates skull (fur would later cover the scar) and done immediate brain surgery to repair the damage from the convulsions, all the while, the relentless flow of information did not cease. Finally the primate black out, but the tentacle creature was pleased that it had endured so much torture before surrendering consciousness. They had chosen well.

The tentacle creature had then opened a great central mouthlike orifice and swallowed the dead primate, bringing the small pathetic creature deep into a near incomprehensible viscera of cybernetic wirings, alien organs, and strange dark energies and thaumaturgies that whirled and twisted like deep purple fog, sometimes swirling together to form skull like faces and speak unknown alien words to the primate. Soon the words penetrated the primates dim consciousness, and as if from very far away he heard and understood them: "You are mine," a deep chilling voice had told him, a voice as cold and weightless as icy winter wind, "You will wait for me, and serve me forever. You will have no other Masters before me. You are mine."

Then the operations had begun.

They sliced him the full length of his body and began inserting probes. Tiny machines entered his bloodstream and injected new DNA into his, in some cases encouraging what would have been a natural evolutionary process to speed up by a few hundred million years, and in some cases radically altering it. Muscle and skeletal growth was redirected, his very spine was reshaped, and as the hours passed the primate changed from a brown furred timid creature that had skulked and crawled on all fours to a orange furred creature that stood tall and strong on two legs. Bony limbs became sculpted with muscle, and hands with five digits ending in thick sharp claws sprouted from before what was paws. The tentacles jabbed him with needles, testing his reflexes, ands when satisfied that they worked, the second stage of the primates transformation had begun, the more complex stage, the evolution of its brain.

The tiny machines were injected into its brain, and they carried with them line after line of genetic code, building blocks for a new nervous system. The latent information that had been poured into the transformed primates receptors was activated, and suddenly as a new brain began to build itself the new creature began to understand the information being fed to it. It had been chosen by a powerful being to be its hand picked vassal, and as such as being remade to suit that purpose. It understood that this being was the most powerful thing in existence, it became aware of the concept of gods and that this being was a god, was in fact THE god, and it was to be the servant for that god. It understood that the world was much larger than it had known, that it extended far past his water hole, and that with the passage of time many new things would come into being. The god was giving it the power to command all the predators in its world, it was now the Master of the wer-cats and direwolves, the saber tigers and the rot lions, and a thousand more that it had not seen and could not name, it could control them all, even the deadly flying things that would sometimes swoop down and take his fellow small primates into the sky never to be seen again, it could control even those too! It had been given Power. Finally it learned that its god did not exists in the same world as it did, it existed in another place entirely that could not be reached from its world, and that it-he-the Beastman-had been chosen first among all the creatures of its world to help his god break his bonds and take his rightful place on the Throne of the World. This was his mission now, he had a name, he had an identity, and he had a calling, he was a BeastMan, and he was a creature of destiny.

His god, who had chosen to remain unnamed, had told him that he too would be a king, but he would need more than the predators to rule over and do his bidding, so he would create more that would be almost like him, but without his strength and without his command of beast. It was important that he remain the strongest and most cunning of his kind, as his lord would always be stronger than him. So following this maxim, when the operation was over and the tentacle creature has released him, the first thing that the new Beast Man had done was to capture the weak primates of his former tribe and give them to the creature, so they too could be transformed to be his subjects.

Thirteen primates in all had been given to the tentacle creature and had been transformed, so that he had a loyal militia. They were the strongest beings on Eternia, and they lorded over all. As promised though, he, THE Beastman, was still the tallest, strongest, most intelligent the only with the power of telepathy and command of other beats. Also, whereas his fur was striking orange his vassals had retained the brown of their original fur, so that he could stand apart from them in all ways.

The tentacle creature provided him a dark orb to communicate with his master. He learned that his master was trapped in a realm called Infinitia, and that it would take much strength and magic to free him of it, but free he must be, that was the purpose for which the Beastman had been created. As the long years passed and the Beastmans army ventured out exploring their world, he built a great kingdom of his own in the Gore Jungles, having discovered it to be a great source of roots and herbs for alchemical drugs and magic, and he learned many recipes from the orb. Soon, he learned that to free his Master four elements would be needed to be combined in the burning heart of the Mountain of The Serpent, a strange rock formation deep in the wastelands of the south. He was responsible for the Green Earth element, which must be taken from the oldest living tree in the Gore Jungle. he went to the tree and slew it, destroying the dyad within and proclaiming his mastery. Then he returned to his abode high in the Gore hills, where he was christened by the orb as a "Scientist Priest" and "Most Loyal of Subjects."

He was but to wait for three more devotees to the Master now, and there was ought to do but watch the years and watch for the sign from Infinitia...


End file.
